Last week, I attended and spoke at a two-day program at the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale titled The Business of Climate Change. Green knowledge experts representing green rock star companies like Xerox, GE, ING, and United Natural Foods spoke about the new economy and how their companies have developed and continue to enhance strong environmental economic models.

I was asked to participate on a panel regarding how the media has reported on green business and what are some of the opportunities and challenges to telling the story.  The following are a few of the current green business trends I touched on in my opening remarks and some leading green firms in the state you may or may not know about.

What Financial Mess

While the economy is in a bit of tough spot due to the financial crisis, Cleanech Investment is pretty strong.  Cleantech venture investing in Q2 came in with a record 66 deals and $897 million invested, topping the previous record of 55 deals and $736 million set in Q3 of 2007.  Now those are Q2, I really don’t think that pace will keep up in Q3.  Take that one step further, all the VC money that went into the successful dot.com firms that exist today are the same VC managers that are investing today in alternative and renewable energy projects.  One step further, The U.S. Patent and Trademark office saw a 10 percent increase in trademark filings for green-themed marks, making it the busiest year ever according to a report filings for new trademarks set a record of more than 300,000 in 2007. The number broke the previous record of 289,000 set in 2000 during the Internet boom. The internet is at stage 2.0, green business is at 1.5.

The Carbon Economy Is Here

Cap and trade is alive and well. The cap-and-trade program created by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, also known as RGGI, is a consortium of 10 eastern states that banded together to develop a trading scheme to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. While other exchanges trade carbon credits that companies and consumers can buy voluntarily, the RGGI program is the first mandatory program limiting carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States. The cap-and-trade program sets a limit for how much carbon dioxide power plants can emit and allows companies that generate more than permitted to buy allowances from those that emit less. RGGI has set a cap of 188 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions per year from 2009 to 2014. The cap is roughly 4 percent above the annual average that RGGI states emitted between 2000 and 2004. The limit will drop by 2.5 percent per year from 2015 to 2018, resulting in a 10-percent emissions reduction from the 2009 limit.

Green Computing

Information Technology and green computing is very hot.  IBM’s recent green marketing strategy is about lowering energy costs from desktop to data centers. Computers - not about speed anymore but about watts. And don’t forget RoHS and Energy Star computers. eWaste is becoming big business.  Recycle used computers to a sustainable waste stream. Virtual meeting technology and social media platforms to tell your message have also become huge outlets to deliver green messages to a targeted audience.
  
Unsung Green Businesses in Connecticut

1. Green Earth Technologies, Stamford – Oil lubricants and other eco-friendly car products.  Featured on CSI.

2. CNC Software, Tolland - One of the largest ground mounted Solar Array, geo-thermal and it’s a Google atmosphere.  

3. Global Executive, Ridgefield - Global Executive, a conference and events logistics management company, has a partnership with BeGreen, the carbon offset division of Green Mountain Energy Company. Global Executive will offers conference participants and organizers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions generated by attending organized business events. 1, 2 and 3 day stays for business travelers can be off set.  They got a plan for you….

4. Max’s Restaurant Group, Hartford - Max Restaurant Group has introduced a new menu that supports local harvesting and dairy farms and fish providers while lowering the company’s carbon footprint. Max Fish uses a water filtration system that provides customers with water bottled on site, both carbonated and still. The bottles will be recycled and eliminate the need for bottles of water to be shipped in.

5. Subway, Milford – 22,000 changed a light bulb last Wednesday.  Eco-store initiative with U.S. Green Building Council. 

6. GreaseGuys, Hamden -  a leading provider of on-site collection of grease waste from restaurants, school cafeterias, hospitals and other places that need to get rid of this commodity.  I kid you not, grease is on an exchange and has a value.

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Today, RecycleBank, one of the leading recycling rewards program in the country, announced that it will partner with the city of Hartford and provide its program to several local neighborhoods. This is a great eco-strategy.  One, it makes it easy for consumers to keep it simple by using a single waste stream and two; it rewards the consumer with discounts and coupons for different goods.  The social responsibility kicker is it saves money for the community.  It’s frequent recycle miles - the more miles you accumulate, the more you and the community benefit.

Here’s how it works.  Residents place all recyclable materials into one cart for curbside pick up. Carts have an identification tag that is recorded by the recycling truck. The amount recycled is converted into RecycleBank Points, which can be used to order rewards. Participants can then track their points online and cash them in for discounts, groceries, coupons, etc. with over 400 national and local reward partner brands like Target, CVS, C-Town and Shaw’s. 

“Recycling is one of the single most important steps someone can take to protect the environment today,” said Ron Gonen, RecycleBank CEO and co-founder. “RecycleBank is excited to be working with the city of Hartford to increase curbside recycling and reward residents for their environmental stewardship.  Every time we launch our program in a new city we are one step closer to fulfilling our mission of getting every house, everywhere, to recycle.”

RecycleBank, with offices in New York, Philadelphia (Go Phillies!), Ontario, Canada and the United Kingdom currently is operating in hundreds of thousands of homes across eleven states – and growing quickly.  Recyclebank has found that one of the big successes of the program has been the participation of middle-to-low income residents, who are typically less likely to participate in local recycling programs.  The company states that rates have doubled and even tripled for this segment of the community population.

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Northeast Utilities’ Environmental Community Grant Program which funds small scale local community and grassroots environmental projects every six months, is now accepting applications for Fall 2008 proposals which are due October 15.  Grants between $250 and $1,000 are awarded in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  Applications are reviewed by a team of NU employees.

Eligible projects protect or preserve the environment, or teach others the value of doing so, such as improving a local wildlife habitat or starting and maintaining a recycling program. Applications must be from organizations served by CL&P and should be for initiatives that can be fully funded by the grant without using other funding sources.

Some past grants have helped fund:

• Funding to the Massachusetts Audubon Society to develop detailed maps and guides using geo-positioning technology for High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary in Shelburne, Massachusetts.
• A grant to the New Hampshire Natural Resources Commission to develop a trail sign system at Sargent Town Forest in Pittsfield, New Hampshire.
• Funding to Connecticut College to study biodiversity in power line corridors.

For more information, or to apply for a grant, call 860-665-3951 or visit NU for an application.

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Next week, Connecticut and nine other eastern seaboard states will begin the first mandatory carbon-emissions trading program in the United States.  Under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the states and investors will hedge their bets that the country’s first mandatory program limiting carbon-dioxide emissions will create a market or value for a ton of carbon and curb green house gas emissions at the same time. The cap-and-trade program sets a limit for how much carbon dioxide power plants can emit and allows companies that generate more than permitted to buy allowances from those that emit less. 

RGGI has set a cap of 188 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions per year from 2009 to 2014. The cap is roughly 4 percent above the annual average that RGGI states emitted between 2000 and 2004. The limit will drop by 2.5 percent per year from 2015 to 2018, resulting in a 10-percent emissions reduction from the 2009 limit. 

According to Stephen Humes and J. Wylie Donald at climatelawyers.com, “The RGGI goal is achieved through complementary, interconnected carbon dioxide Budget Trading Programs implemented by each participating state. The “allowances” are issued by the participating states, and each “allowance” represents the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide. At the end of each compliance period, each regulated entity is required to prove compliance with each participating state’s carbon dioxide Budget Trading Program.

“It is anticipated that RGGI may be extended in the future to include other sources of greenhouse gas emissions (beyond power plants), and to cover greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide. However, at this stage, the scope of RGGI is limited to carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.”

Some critics of the program say the cap is too high and that most of the emitters will fall short of the threshold which in turn will create fewer incentives for power plants to reduce emissions or buy allowances, a scenario that would lead to low trading prices.  They point to the European Union’s carbon-trading program in 2006 that saw carbon prices fall dramatically after the program distributed more emissions permits than businesses needed.  Others say that the compact only looks at power plants and should take into account other emitters.

“RGGI is a modest effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but it only impacts electric utilities,” said Peter Fusaro, chairman of the Global Change Associates in an article in greentechmedia.com. “RGGI is a start, but it’s not the end game.”

RGGI is scheduled to begin auctioning emissions allowances on Sept. 25 and power-plant operators will have to comply with emissions limits starting on Jan. 1, 2009.  Besides Connecticut, other states involved with RGGI include, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

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The Saybrook Point Inn has continued in its green ways and has installed and turned on a solar panel array. Saybrook Point Inn was the first Connecticut hotel to receive the “Clean Marina Award” and has since won it three more times. The facility has also won Circle Awards from the state Department of Environmental Protection for installing water-recycling laundry equipment with ozone and for purchasing water-efficient toilets and dishwashers. Saybrook Point is also the first full-service hotel in the state to win an “Energy Star” certification awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to top performing buildings.

The American Cancer Society announced at press conference last Wednesday its plans to build a proposed $3.4 million Regional Center at 38 Richards Avenue in Norwalk.  The building will feature green technology and geothermal heating and air conditioning and is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for New Construction program.

An article which appeared on the huffingtonpost.com suggested that if republican presidential nominee John McCain wanted to pick a greener female running mate than Sarah Palin, he may have wanted to consider Governor of Hawaii Linda Lingle, former Governor of New Jersey and EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman or Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell.

Noble Environmental Power an Essex, Conn. based wind power company has announced it has set the number of shares in its planned initial public offering at 23.4 million. The updated filing comes amid an investigation into the company by the New York State Attorney General alleging improper dealings with public officials and anti-competitive practices. The company is planning to raise up to $375 million.

Harrison Ford will be honored by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation at their fifth annual Celebrating the Great Outdoors benefit in Greenwhich, Connecticut on September 20.  Harrison will be honored for his for his “decades-long leadership in the environmental movement. Harrison Ford’s public commitment of time, energy, and resources has brought worldwide focus to issues that face our nation’s fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.”

UTC Power, a subsidiary of United Technologies, has just completed installing four 200-kilowatt fuel cells at Rentschler Field in East Hartford to provide power for the mega outdoor store Cabela’s.

Covanta Energy Corp., which operates waste-to-energy plants in Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as around the country, is offering to accept nets and line from fishermen to safely dispose of worn-out fishing gear and other debris at no charge for use as fuel in its plants.

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I was informed recently about a very interesting proposal.  Do you know of a town in Connecticut that has an extra hundred acres of farm land that it would like to see developed green? The developer only has a few requirments such as it has to be a fifty-five and over residential community and use green technology. If you know of such place, all the town has to do is agree to work with the developer and help push “the envelope” to create Connecticut’s first energy independent or off the grid sub-division. Gary Bonomo, CEO of CDI Fund in Naugatuck is ready to create a model for the next generation of suburban development and he is ready to spend his own money to get the job done. 

The strategy is pretty interesting. Mr. Bonomo plans to construct 250 houses that are powered by a combination of geothermal, solar, hydro and wind energy.  Ideally, he would like 100 acres so there is room for the houses, self-sustaining infrastructure, nearby farms and greenhouses, a rain collection system and, if situated right, a wind turbine. The ideal piece of land also would include a hill that would allow CDI Fund to maximize the efficiency of the geothermal system, an east-west exposure and a river or stream running through it, he said.

The developer would also like to incorporate having the community use its group purchasing power to achieve discounted prices for buying items in bulk. In one of his previous retirement community projects, he helped the development’s residents stretch their retirement dollars. Through the homeowners’ association, residents purchase propane, home security systems and homeowners’ insurance in bulk, receiving a volume discount. They also negotiated a bulk discount for purchasing Whirlpool appliances for all the homes.

“The reason we’re doing this is we believe the federal government is not going to be able to supplement the retirees’ savings,” Bonomo said. “I think an entrepreneurial solution is necessary.”

The proposal also calls for two commercial uses within the subdivision. He envisions a grocery store that sells food that is both purchased and grown on site and sold to residents at a discount. Residents would have the option of further lowering their costs by working in the supermarket.

He’d also like the subdivision to include an on-site gas station where residents can purchase gas at discounted prices. If towns don’t have mixed-use zoning and don’t want to allow a gas station within a residential zone, Bonomo would like to be able to associate the development with a nearby gas station that would allow residents to negotiate a lower price in exchange for a bulk-purchase commitment.
 
“Here’s a golden opportunity to put together a community based on freedom,” he said. By keeping the cost of food and energy down through self-sufficiency, this community would allow baby boomers to age with financial freedom and maintain the quality of life to which they’ve grown accustom, he said. Too many seniors living on fixed incomes see their quality of life erode when food and energy costs spiral, he said.

Bonomo is looking for towns that would like to have an open dialogue about this concept. He is so confident in his idea that he’s financing the project with his own funds. He is also seeking investors to an initial public offering.   Go get’em T. Bonomo

He is happy to talk with towns, alternative energy experts or others who are interested in getting involved with this project. He can be reached at 203-723-2010.

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